Ummmm, you have no idea how nervous I am right now.  My hands are totally shaking.  In fact, I’m writing this post at night and not planning to publish it until morning.  I just got off the phone with my friend, Gladys.  I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.  I think I’m so nervous because I’m already anticipating some of your responses.   I get it.  This is different.  Way different than my old “brand.”  Way different than my generic grayscale brand that couldn’t offend anybody.  You may think this doesn’t seem like me.

But, really, that wasn’t me.  I kept wanting it to be me because it was so dang safe and nobody had a real opinion about it.  I’ve very slowly been grasping the difference between a *brand* with fancy graphical elements … and a *brand experience* — about which I thought long & hard this time.  Before I even touched the design part.  What do I love about life, about being a consumer, about not being a consumer, about the subcultures I choose to be part of?  How can I take those elements and pour them into my own business and brand experience?

I’ve worked on this brand for months & months … keeping in-mind both who I am and who my ideal client is.  I already know that my ideal client gets me and will get this new look.  They are looking at this blog right now and nodding along with me.  They will see my new website and understand the format and why it’s no longer flash-driven or wedding-esque and *pretty.*  It’s scary to alienate the others, but I know that is exactly what I need to do as I move forward.

So if you like what you see, my guess is that we already get each other.  And I like you :)

New print collateral is so fun.  Here are my new DVD inserts (front and back).  If you open them up, my print release is inside.  Clients get these with their image DVDs.  New sleeves for the DVDs are on the way in a couple weeks.

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New business cards:

undefinedI’m packing my business cards in little clear bags … filled with heart confetti and 1-inch buttons (all unique, based on my mood/interests at the time :)).

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And … new postcards!  Excited that I finally have branded correspondence.  Until now I was using generic notecards from completely random stores and desk drawers. Go ahead, give me your address.  I promise to write.

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Along with a new look comes a new portfolio website.  It was important to me that my new site not be flash-driven.  I wanted it to look just as good on a 27 inch iMac as it does on the iPad and iPhone.  And nothing drove me more crazy than waiting for my old flash site to load each individual image.

**Updated to add**  It looks like there are still a few kinks with my new site’s servers and sometimes the portfolio link will bring you to my old flash site (you will recognize the old branding, obviously) and other times to my new portfolio site.  Sorry about the confusion … should all be good in less than 72 hours.  Until then, feel free to keep trying.  Lots of people have gotten it to work.  All works here on my iMac, Macbook and iPad :)

Ahhhhhhh…I did it!  A huge thank you to my talented in-house designer and husband, Troy.  I think he did a brilliant job of really listening to what I wanted and executing it so well.

Thank you for being here.  I hope you stay around. xoxo, AM.